The Dragon Class has over 90 years of history, but until now, most of this was kept in “digital shoe-boxes” in various countries in various formats. As the Dragon Class approaches its 100th Anniversary at the end of this decade, we decided we could do better. So this is the start of a publicly-accessible, easily-searchable archive of the history of the boats, the builders, and stories of the people who made the Class what it is today. We encourage people to contribute information, articles, photos and stories.
The Project
We started thinking about how to update our digital shoe-box late in 2020. After looking at what other Classes have done, as well as what has already been done by the Dragon Class in some countries, we decided to model ourselves on the International Six Meter Class Archive. They were very helpful in advising us on their experience – thanks! ISMA had funding from a generous donor, which allowed them to implement their archive for the entire Class at once. We have taken a different tack, by developing a prototype for North America that can be extended to other countries, once we have proven the concept and the design. So consider this dragonarchive 1.0 with more to come soon!
The Dragon Class
A design competition was launched in 1928 by the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club (GKSS) in Sweden for an affordable cruising keelboat that was “relatively fast, externally attractive and seaworthy”. Johan Anker, already an eminent yacht designer and winner that year of an Olympic Gold Medal in the 6-meter class, was the winner and his one-design entry, based on the 20 square-meter rule, was approved that year by the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club, the Royal Danish Yacht Club and the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club. The first Dragon was built in 1929 and they quickly became popular in most nearby countries. International competition began with the donation by the Clyde Yacht Club Conference of the Dragon Gold Cup in 1937.
Today, the Dragon has become the keel boat of choice for ex-Olympic contenders and champions as well as other talented sailors looking for strong competition in a non-Olympic Class. There are Class Associations in 31 countries across the globe and more than 1,300 boats registered as actively sailing.